VOLUME 16, NUMBER 2 FEATURES FESTIVAL '91 BILLY PICTORIAL HIGGINS Highlights from MD's Festival LARS Weekend '91, featuring William They say that in jazz, nothing Kennedy, Deen Castronovo, Billy ULRICH speaks like experience. Well, few Cobham, Roy Haynes, Casey drummers have traveled all the Scheuerell, David Garibaldi, The maturing of a master metal roads Billy Higgins has: Coltrane, Tommy Aldridge, and monster: By stripping their music Monk, Rollins, Coleman...no won- Chuck Morris. to its basic elements, drummer der today's hottest players look to 30 Lars Ulrich and his Metallica Higgins for direction. mates have come up with their Find out why in this very fiercest statement yet. Learn special story. how Lars and company shatter 26 • by Lora Rosner cliches and lead the pack. • by Teri Saccone 20 MD's YAMAHA DRUM RIG GIVEAWAY Your last chance to win a Yamaha Drum Rig worth $12,400! 64 COVER PHOTO BY ROSS HALFIN COLUMNS Education 56 CLUB SCENE Beating The Breakdown Blues BY RICK VAN HORN Equipment 58 DRUM SOLOIST 40 PRODUCT Max Roach: "Blue 7" Departments TRANSCRIBED BY CLOSE-UP THOMAS P. BARRICK Pearl CZX Studio Kit BY RICK VAN HORN 4 EDITOR'S OVERVIEW 66 TRACKING 41 Pearl DR-100 News Drum Rack Getting Your Sight- BY RICK VAN HORN 6 READERS' reading Together 8 UPDATE BY EMIL RICHARDS 42 Unique Percussion PLATFORM Pro-Rizer Chad Wackerman, BY RICK VAN HORN Philthy Animal Taylor, 74 TEACHERS' 12 ASK A PRO the Violent Femmes' FORUM 43 Evans Genera EQ-3 Victor DeLorenzo, and Bass Drum System LA Guns' Steve Riley, Writing A Program BY RICK VAN HORN 16 IT'S Of Instruction plus News BY WOODY THOMPSON QUESTIONABLE 48 ELECTRONIC 121 INDUSTRY 76 BASICS REVIEW 62 LIAISON HAPPENINGS Professionalism: Yamaha DTS70 A Daily Dozen Triggering System BY MAT MARUCCI BY ED URIBE 98 CRITIQUE Profiles 78 STRICTLY 124 NEW AND 130 DRUM MARKET TECHNIQUE NOTABLE 54 PORTRAITS Developing The Drummers . Of Toronto Coordination And BYT. BRUCE WITTET Independence: Part 1 BY JOE MORELLO 68 FROM THE PAST 96 ROCK 'N' Zutty Singleton JAZZ CLINIC BY BURT KORALL Songofunk BY DAVID GARIBALDI 112 CONCEPTS Fame Vs. Ability BY ROY BURNS EDITOR'S OVERVIEW EDITOR/PUBLISHER Ronald Spagnardi ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Isabel Spagnardi Festival Five MANAGING EDITOR Rick Van Horn Despite the fact that it was a tough year due to the FEATURES EDITOR William F. Miller recession, I'm pleased to report that MD's Festival ASSOCIATE EDITOR Adam J. Budofsky Weekend '91 was sold out once again. Personally, I EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Karen Walsh think that's a testament to the fact that drummers ART DIRECTOR are like no other group of musicians in the world, Scott G. Bienstock and it takes a lot more than a recession to stop us! ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Tracy A. Kearns Obviously, '91 wasn't a record-breaking year for the ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Bob Berenson manufacturers in our industry either, but as usual, ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Joan C. Stickel the sponsors came through for us again in the SALES AND MARKETING Crystal W Van Horn ' interest of educating young drummers. DIRECTOR Purely from a drumming standpoint, this was perhaps one of our CONSULTANT TO THE Arnold E. Abramson finest Festivals, with a superb balance of artists and styles. The event PUBLISHER was off to a rousing start with the dynamic playing of Will Kennedy, followed by a super high-energy performance by Deen Castronovo of MODERN DRUMMER ADVISORY BOARD: Henry Adler, Kenny Bad English. Billy Cobham was on next and clearly proved to every- Aronoff, Louie Bellson, Bill Bruford, Roy Burns, Jim Chapin, Alan one that he hasn't lost one ounce of the ability that made everyone's Dawson, Dennis DeLucia, Les DeMerle, Len DiMuzio, Charlie Donnelly, Peter Erskine, Vic Firth, Danny Gottlieb, Sonny Igoe, Jim head turn some twenty years ago. Finally, the incomparable Roy Keltner, Larrie Londin, Peter Magadini, George Marsh, Joe Morello, Rod Haynes—who's been on the scene for five decades—made it perfect- Morgenstein, Andy Newmark, Neil Peart, Charlie Perry, Dave Samuels, John Santos, Ed Shaughnessy, Steve Smith, Ed Thigpen, Dave Weckl. ly clear why he's one of the greatest jazz drummers that ever lived. The Sunday show kicked off with a clinic by Casey Scheuerell, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Robyn Flans, Simon Goodwin, Rick Mattingly, Ken Micallef, Jeff Potter, Teri Saccone, Robert Santelli. which received a well-deserved standing ovation. Following Casey came a tasteful performance, with a wealth of inspirational thoughts, MODERN DRUMMER magazine (ISSN 0194-4533) is published monthly by MODERN DRUMMER Publications, Inc., 870 Pompton from an articulate David Garibaldi. Those who came to see some Avenue, Cedar Grove, NJ 07009. Second-Class Postage paid at Cedar rather remarkable double-bass drum work certainly weren't disap- Grove, NJ 07009 and at additional mailing offices. Copyright 1992 by MODERN DRUMMER Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. pointed by Tommy Aldridge, and funk fans I'm sure left in total awe Reproduction without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. of Chuck Morris's performance with Super Slam. EDITORIAL/ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES: MODERN The backstage area was filled with activity both days, as usual, with DRUMMER Publications, 870 Pompton Avenue, Cedar Grove, NJ artists like Joe Morello, Jim Chapin, Joe Franco, Dom Famularo, 07009. Tel.: (201) 239-4140. Steve Smith, Danny Gottlieb, Liberty DeVitto, Dennis Chambers, MODERN DRUMMER welcomes manuscripts and photographic mate- and Marvin "Smitty" Smith engaged in friendly conversation among rial, however, cannot assume responsibility for them. Such items must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. themselves and backstage autograph seekers. For a closer look at the activity both onstage and off, check out our Festival Weekend cover- MUSIC DEALERS: Modern Drummer is available for resale at bulk rates. Direct correspondence to Modern Drummer, Dealer Service, P.O. age on page 30 of this issue. Box 389, Mt. Morris, IL 61054. Tel.: (800) 334-DRUM or (815) 734- Again, it would be quite impossible to stage an event such as this 6013. without the strong support of our industry. And so, our sincere SUBSCRIPTIONS: $27.95 per year; $49.95, two years. Single copies thanks this year go to our friends at Sonor, Sabian, Mapex, Pro-Mark, $3.95. Remo, Ludwig, Musicians Institute, Vic Firth, Pearl, Paiste, Yamaha, SUBSCRIPTION CORRESPONDENCE: Modern Drummer, P.O. Box Zildjian, and ddrum. Finally, my personal thanks to the artists and 480, Mt. Morris, IL 61054-0480. Change of address: Allow at least six weeks for a change. Please provide both old and new address. Toll Free support personnel, all of the MD staff and volunteers who work Tel.: (800) 551-3786. incredibly hard all weekend long, and Festival coordinator Rick Van POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Modern Drummer, P.O. Box Horn, who pulls it together every year. To all of you who were there, 480, Mt. Morris, IL 61054. we thank you for coming and hope you enjoyed the show. To those of you who couldn't make it this year—well, we'll look forward to seeing you at Festival '92. Audit Bureau Of Circulations Membership applied for. READERS' PLATFORM of sticks, and treated me like an old the October '91 issue of Modern William Kennedy friend. It fills me with great pride to be Drummer. Without a doubt, this is the What a triple-whammy I got from William part of this great drumming community most accurate treatment of the subject I Kennedy this summer! I saw him with of ours, and to be able to live in a country have ever seen! Not only did Rick cover the Yellowjackets on Long Island one in which musical education is so readily the major issues, but he displayed an month, saw him at MD's Drum Festival available. uncanny ability to explain many subtleties the next month, and read his cover story Mike Abies of our segment of the industry. in the November issue the next week! Baton Rouge LA I have two possible explanations for And I still can't get enough of the guy! Rick's perceptiveness: Either he had the He's hot, he's articulate (both on and off FBI bug a number of drum shops across the drums), and he still seems humble. I the country, or he has spent countless hope his amazing talent continues to Bobby Rock hours in drum shops after making him- develop, and I hope he enjoys great suc- Thank you for the article on Bobby Rock self invisible! Don't let on as to which of cess—as long as it doesn't spoil his ter- in your November "91 issue. Bobby's out- the above techniques he used. That way, rific attitude toward playing drums, look on life is very refreshing and inspir- he'll be able to continue the great work. toward music in general, and toward his ing to me. Instead of ruining himself by Rob Birenbaum audience. There are a lot of veterans out using drugs and alcohol, he takes care of Drum Headquarters there who could take some lessons himself. As I read the article, I found St. Louis MO (again, both on and off the drums) from myself agreeing with just about every- Mr. Kennedy. thing he said. I am in much the same sit- Freddie Beigh uation; I try to eat a healthy diet and take Westbury NY care of myself. Unfortunately, many peo- Help Him Find North ple in the rock 'n' roll business are nar- I'm in the midst of building my dream row-minded and make fun of people like monster drumset (18 toms, 4 kicks, etc.).